WesTrac begins sacking 440 employees from Perth operations

AMWU's Steve McCartney talks to a WesTrac manager during a protest over the job cuts last week.

Graeme Powell

The heavy machinery services company WesTrac has begun sacking more than 400 workers from its operations in Perth.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) says staff at the company's headquarters in Guildford are being called into a fenced-off area they have dubbed the "gas chamber", to be told they no longer have a job before being told to leave.

The head of Seven Group Holdings, which owns WesTrac, Don Voelte, says 440 people out of a total staff of more than 3,000 will go.

He says the job losses are regrettable but necessary due to a downturn in the mining industry.

"Even losing one job is regrettable," Mr Voelte said.

"I mean it is not good, nobody is happy with that.

"I would say the management at WesTrac and Seven Group Holdings - it's traumatic for us too. We're not in their shoes, but it is regrettable.

"The miners are trying to make their profit and they've cut back on their capital spend, as well as their maintenance spend, that has basically spun back into the services industry like WesTrac.

"Bottom line is we have to respond to the miners and not as much business and we have to do it more cost effectively."

Mr Voelte has also denied claims by AMWU that workers were recently told they could help save jobs by accepting a lower pay rise.

"Number one is that they didn't accept the low wage that we had proposed," he said.

"But I would just say that it would be less than fair of me, or less than honest, to say that it was going to save all the jobs, that is not the issue.

"I think the issue is that we have to save the jobs, so 440 positions that you mentioned out of over 3,000 positions, we have to protect the other 2,500 jobs to make sure that we have a viable business and that those jobs are more secure."

The sackings will continue over coming days.

The AMWU says up to 75 apprentices could lose their jobs.

It is expected they will be advised on Thursday.

Last week, the union staged a rally outside the WesTrac offices to protest against the sackings.